Website for small businesses postponed

Thursday

Nov 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 28, 2013 at 11:33 AM

WASHINGTON - Beset by problems with the rollout of the president's health-care law, the Obama administration has canceled plans to allow small businesses in many states to use a website to select health-insurance plans for their employees for next year.

WASHINGTON — Beset by problems with the rollout of the president’s health-care law, the Obama administration has canceled plans to allow small businesses in many states to use a website to select health-insurance plans for their employees for next year.

Officials said they need to concentrate on fixing the website that allows individuals who do not get coverage at work to sign up for insurance.

Instead of a website, small employers in 35 states, including Ohio, will have to go through insurance brokers or deal directly with insurance companies to get a plan that meets new standards in the Affordable Care Act, as many already do.

Under Obamacare, most small businesses do not have to provide coverage. But firms with 50 or more employees face a mandate to offer insurance or risk fines from the government in 2015.

The HealthCare.gov site, where individuals without employer-sponsored health care can shop for insurance, is now smoothly handling 25,000 users at the same time and is on track to meet its goal of handling 50,000 simultaneous users by Saturday, said administration spokeswoman Julie Bataille. “ We have a lot of work left to do in the next few days,” she said.

The administration’s announcement yesterday does not affect businesses in states such as California that are operating their own Obamacare marketplaces, many of which have been successfully enrolling people. And because small businesses still can sign up their workers through brokers, the lack of a website may not have a large short-term impact on coverage.

But the postponement marks another major setback for administration hopes to showcase the Affordable Care Act’s promise and to demonstrate an ability to implement the law effectively.

Republicans quickly pounced on the latest bad news.

“It’s another broken promise and more proof this administration’s assurances have no credibility,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester. “This law has been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask ‘what’s next?’??”

Administration officials said they hope that a website allowing small employers to shop among plans online will be operational by next November so that employers can shop for plans for 2015.

“It was important for us to prioritize the functionality that would enable consumers individually to shop and enroll online,” said Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is working on the websites.

The small-business marketplaces — known as the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, exchanges — were supposed to offer small employers the online ability to compare health plans for their employees and select up to several options. But the SHOP marketplaces have been dogged by many of the same problems that led to the disastrous rollout of the online marketplaces for individual consumers.

“It’s disappointing,” said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, which has supported the Affordable Care Act. “It’s important it get up and running as soon as possible.”

The National Retail Federation, which has worked to ease the law’s requirements, was less generous.

“If the law is so burdensome for the administration to implement, just think how hard it is for small businesses, which are focused on growing a company, hiring new employees and assisting customers,” said Neil Trautwein, the group’s top health-policy official.

Small businesses buying coverage still will be eligible for tax credits to bring down the cost, according to the administration. Starting next year, small businesses can claim a credit of up to 50 percent of their contributions to premiums for insurance purchased through the SHOP.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.

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